How To Use Content To Boost E-commerce Sales

Last week, I had a conversation with a colleague about the current state of retail marketing and the disparity between the most and least successful e-commerce brands. “These days, smart marketers make money while they sleep,” said BJ Frogozo, former director of marketing at LA-based DOPE apparel. DOPE is infamous for their content marketing strategy, that capitalizes on celebrity activations and timely headlines to sell products in flash campaigns.

While setting up a website and populating an online store can take mere hours, given the technological resources available to us these days, we’re far from the notion of “build it and they will come.” A huge number of e-commerce companies never become profitable, let alone make you money while you sleep.

The challenge in bringing this modern marketer’s dream to fruition is thanks in part to Amazon. The retail heavyweight alone accounts for about 5% of American retail spending, overall, according to a recent Bloomberg Intelligence estimate. Moreover, EMarketer projects that Amazon will bring in a whopping 49% of online spending this year.

Still, a number of success stories are popping up from direct-to-consumer retailers, like Casper, the e-commerce first mattress store which recently announced plans to open 200 brick-and-mortar locations. The digital to physical expansion has been a trend for successful retailers that catalyze their growth online and build brick-and-mortar into their marketing strategy.

Arguably the most important component in the success of direct-to-consumer online retailers is strong content. Savvy marketers know that they need to publish trust-building content to establish a relationship with consumers, create brand affinity, identify customer intent, and prove the value of their products in addressing pain points.